Santa Cruz Sentinel, 2/7/2020, “Students explore Elkorn Slough Reserve; young minds are learning how to connect the dots between local watersheds and the ocean,” by Ashleigh Papp.

WATSONVILLE — For students at Watsonville’s Mount Madonna School, learning beyond the confines of the classroom is taken to a new level. On Thursday, students from fifth and ninth grade classes, 18 total, spent the day exploring Elkhorn Slough Reserve.

This hidden gem is the second-largest estuary in California, situated along the Pacific Coast of Monterey Bay. Founded in 1979, Elkhorn Slough offers oak forests, coastal prairie and tidal marsh for students young and old to explore.

“It’s a fun day outdoors at the slough, learning about all the life that lives there and how that, in turn, is connected to the Monterey Bay,” said Jessica Cambell, project mentor and fifth-grade teacher at Mount Madonna School.

Both sets of young, eager minds, are also enrolled in a mentorship program that involves a ninth-grader being paired up with a fifth-grader for the school year. Throughout the day’s field trip, the pairs of students commingled to teach one another new things and reinforce concepts learned in the classroom. Read more